30 Days of Assorted One-Shots

Day 11: Even In Suffering

"He'll be here."

The mere sound of your Partner's voice is almost enough to quell the ripples of anxiety radiating through you, though when he appears at your side, moments later, a reassuring grin being tossed your way, for a moment, you feel fine.

Normal.

But how normal is waiting in whatever dark underpass for a Black Market dealer selling plutonium?

Not quite normal enough for your liking.

It had been such a... tease, for lack of a better word, spending the last few weeks almost living completely regular lives throughout the day and keeping an ear to the ground for any word at night.

In all your years working for the IMF alongside Agent Ethan Hunt, the pair of you have been put in numerous scenarios that to an outsider, would seem legitimately real.

Whether romantically or platonically intimate, scenarios of all sorts always seem to follow you both around...

But as time moves on and the Missions continue to get riskier and riskier...

The more you find yourself on those late nights that you can't sleep, your hazy gaze wandering the ceiling, wishing and wanting to live a normal life.

With the very man you've spent almost your entire career beside.

Heck, it's a running joke amongst your Teammates and acquaintances back at HQ that you and he are practically already a married couple - some even suspected that's why he left Julia, his former wife, all that time ago.

But, you know Ethan.

He explained everything to you after 'rescuing' him from that Prison in Moscow.

And when he'd laid everything out - explained his thought process, his objective - to you, you'd nearly broke down in tears right then and there, a sorrow so deep running through you upon hearing his motives, you'd merely hugged him in reassurance.

And since then, he's kept an eye on Julia, watching over her from a distance, almost like a guardian angel of sorts.

A trait that he carries even towards his own Teammates and lately...

Especially over you.

"I'm supposed to believe you're perfectly relaxed? Right here and now? In a dark alleyway? Waiting to buy dark market plutonium from a psychopath?!" Benji exclaims as you tear yourself away from your thoughts, refocusing on the here and now, a shiver rippling down your spine as a cool gust of wind dances over your bare arms.

"I won't let anything happen to you," Your Partner grins with a chuckle, exchanging a rather humored glance with you.

"I thought you were the one who wanted to be in the field?" You tease the communications specialist, a genuine laugh sounding in your earpiece.

"Yeah, tough guy! You were the one who wanted to be a field Agent and here you are!" Luther chuckles, his voice a slight comfort knowing he's parked down aways, watching the scene unfold from the safety of the van.

"And tonight, Luther, I'd like to be in that van!"

You allow the accented tone and the voice in your earpiece to fade as a new set of headlights dot the dark road in front of you, the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach from last night once more on the rise.

"Cut the chatter."

"He's here."

"Here we go! Time to finally meet the psychopath!"